x. The working fluid may be a wide variety of gases, in addition to the noble gases described earlier, so that all mentions of gas atoms may be extended to molecules of various types.
xi. The working fluid may be a liquid, so that all mentions of gases and gas atoms may be extended to liquids of various types. For operation within approximately of 100° C., one possible liquid is ethylene glycol. For high temperature operation, the liquid can be sodium.
xii. Micro-motors formed using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology can be used to pump the gas through the channels.
xiii. The Casimir cavities may be composed of carbon nanotubes.
xiv. The pattern may be formed using self-assembled layers.
xv. The device may incorporate a naturally formed structure. For example, diatom shells (Goho, 2004a) consist of silicon dioxide patterned with features, including holes, that are tens of nanometers in size. They can be coated as needed with conductors to form Casimir cavities.
xvi. The water bath may be replaced with any other material or device that absorbs substantially the released energy wavelengths. Such materials include glass, organic polymers, thermophotovoltaic devices, among many possibilities known to those skilled in the art.
xvii. Rather than surrounding the entire apparatus, the absorbing material may be placed in the apparatus, for example coating the channels through which the gas flows. Such placement can allow the absorber to reside within roughly an emission wavelength of the gas that is releasing the energy. Gas Oscillating Through Casimir Channels
The device described in the previous embodiment exposes the gas atoms to a very large number of transitions between Casimir cavity regions (between conducting layers) and exposed regions (without the conducting layers) by pumping them across multiple transitions. Instead of pumping gas through the device, gas atoms can simply be oscillated back and forth between Casimir cavity and exposed regions.
A simple way to visualize this, but not necessarily the most efficient working device, is to consider the device of FIGS. 4A-4D, but with the gaps sealed at the north and south edges. Instead of connecting to tubing via the connector ring, the ring is sealed with a thin metal diaphragm. Before sealing the device it is filled with the desired working gas. An ultrasonic transducer is then mated to the diaphragm. When the ultrasonic transducer is powered, it rapidly compresses and decompressed the gas, causing it to oscillate back and forth between Casimir and exposed regions.
A vertical oscillatory flow device is shown in FIGS. 5A-5C. FIG. 5A shows a top view, in which many small holes 54 are formed in the substrate surface. The device is surrounded by a connector ring 58. A magnified cross section of the holes is shown in FIG. 5B. The holes 54 have a diameter d, a center-to-center spacing s, a depth t2, and the thickness of a conducting region 56 at the surface is t1. A central cross section of the entire device is shown in FIG. 5C. It shows the substrate (holes and conducting layer not shown), the connector ring at the periphery, and a thin diaphragm 57 attached to the top of the connector ring.
The gap and holes are filled with the chosen working gas 59. An ultrasonic transducer or other source of high frequency vibrations is placed in contact with the diaphragm 57 and powered. This produces gas pressure oscillations that force gas atoms past the Casimir region 55 formed at the top of each hole, alternately in upward and downward directions. Instead of a single conducting layer at the top, multiple alternating conducting and non-conducting layers can be formed at the top of the holes, to multiply the effect. As in the embodiment of FIGS. 4A-4D, the apparatus is surrounded by a means for absorbing the released energy, such as a water bath 24.
The device is fabricated as follows. The conducting layer 56 is deposited using vacuum deposition, such as sputtering, or from a liquid by anodic or electroless deposition. The layers are patterned by methods known to those skilled in the art, such as electron-beam lithography or photolithography. Alternatively, the holes 54 can be formed using self-assembled monolayers to create the lithography mask, as known to those skilled in the art. The holes are etched to a high aspect ratio, e.g., ratio of depth-to-diameter of 20, such as by ion milling. The outer ring 58 is attached using epoxy, the region is filled with the desired working gas 59, and the diaphragm 57 is attached with epoxy.
The materials and dimensions in the preferred embodiment are as follows. The substrate 52 is sapphire, and has diameter of 2.54 cm and a thickness of 250 microns. The conducting layer 56 is aluminum, of thickness t1 of 1 micron. The hole 54 depth t2 is 4 microns. The hole diameter d is 0.2 microns and center-to-center spacing s is 0.3 microns.
It is to be understood that the shape, dimensions, modulation techniques and materials can be varied greatly and still be part of this invention. The following is a list of some such variations, but it is far from exhaustive:
i. The Casimir cavities may be composed of carbon nanotubes.
ii. The working fluid may be a wide variety of gases, in addition to the noble gases described earlier, so that all mentions of gas atoms may be extended to molecules of various types.
iii. The working fluid may be a liquid, so that all mentions of gases and gas atoms may be extended to liquids of various types. For operation of up to approximately 100° C., one possible liquid is ethylene glycol. For high temperature operation, the liquid can be sodium.
iv. Instead of actively causing the gas atoms to oscillate into and out from the Casimir cavity regions, the oscillations can result from ambient thermal vibrations (e.g., Brownian motion).
v. The configuration of the device can be similar to that of the MEMS device of FIGS. 7A and 7B (described as part of a later embodiment), such that the working gas is pushed back and forth between the left-hand and right-hand regions.
vi. The pattern may be formed using self-assembled layers.
vii. The device may incorporate a naturally formed structure. For example, diatom shells consist of silicon dioxide patterned with features, including holes, that are tens of nanometers in size. They can be coated as needed with conductors to form Casimir cavities.
viii. The pumping can be driven by a naturally occurring mechanism. For example, some yeast cell have been found to naturally vibrate at 1.6 kHz (Goho, 2004b). This could be used to cause a gas to oscillate back and forth between Casimir cavity and exposed regions.
ix. The water bath may be replaced with any other material or device that absorbs substantially the released energy wavelengths. Such materials include glass, organic polymers, thermophotovoltaic devices, among many possibilities known to those skilled in the art.
x. Rather than surrounding the entire apparatus, the absorbing material may be placed in the apparatus, for example coating the channels through which the gas flows. Such placement can allow the absorber to reside within roughly an emission wavelength of the gas that is releasing the energy. Casimir Cavities in Flexible Polymer
Rather than moving the working gas by flowing it (FIGS. 4A-4D) or vibrating it into and out of a Casimir cavity (FIGS. 5A-5C), the cavity wall characteristics can be switched, which results in a shift in the cavity's allowed modes. This produces the same result of tapping vacuum electromagnetic energy that the flowing gas device of the embodiment of FIGS. 4A-4D produces. One way to accomplish this is to put the working gas into gaps formed in flexible photonic crystals. A photonic crystal blocks and passes bands of electromagnetic radiation, where the band wavelength ranges depend upon the material properties and spacing of small repeated structures. A flexible photonic crystal can be formed by embedding an array or rigid objects, such as silicon pillars, in a thin film of flexible polymer. The electromagnetic (or optical) properties of such two-dimensional slab photonic crystal structures is well known to those skilled in the art (Park, 2002).
FIGS. 6A and 6B show such a photonic crystal device. FIG. 6A is a top view, showing metal supports 62 at both ends of a polymer film 64. The rigid pillars that form the phonic crystal are buried in the polymer. As the film is stretched in the plane of the paper, the pillar spacing in the plane normal to the paper is decreased, which changes the electromagnetic passband. FIG. 6B is an edge view showing the supports 62, the polymer film 64, and gaps in the film that are filled with the working gas 69. (For clarity, the pillars are not shown.) The gap size is sufficiently narrow to produce a significant Casimir effect, e.g., 200 nm. The length or width need to be sufficiently small to maintain the narrow gap, e.g., 1 micron. The stretching takes place by attaching one support to a stationary object and attaching the other support to a vibrator, such as a piezoelectric crystal, which itself may be attached on its opposing side to another stationary support. As in the embodiment of FIGS. 4A-5D, the apparatus is surrounded by a means for absorbing the released energy, such as a water bath 24.
It is to be understood that the shape, dimensions, modulation techniques and materials can be varied greatly and still be part of this invention. The following is a list of some such variations, but it is far from exhaustive:
i. Instead of stretching the polymer, it can be modulated with an acoustic signal through the air, or through a liquid that surrounds it.
ii. Instead of stretching the polymer, it can be modulated with an ambient thermal vibrations. As the working gas and the structure heats up, the vibrations increase.
iii. The polymer embedded with rigid pillars may be formed into small spheres that are filled with the working gas. These spheres can fill or partially fill a volume in which the pressure is modulated, either by enclosing the volume and modulating the pressure in the entire volume, by passing an acoustic signal through the volume, or by thermal vibrations. This modulation causes the passband of the photonic crystal that surrounds the working gas to vary. Although the shape of the device is substantially different from that of FIGS. 6A-6B, the function is the same.
iv. The working fluid may be a wide variety of gases, in addition to the noble gases described earlier, so that all mentions of gas atoms may be extended to molecules of various types.
v. The working fluid may be a liquid, so that all mentions of gases and gas atoms may be extended to liquids of various types. For operation of up to approximately 100° C., one possible liquid is ethylene glycol. For high temperature operation, the liquid can be sodium.
vi. The water bath may be replaced with any other material or device that absorbs substantially the released energy wavelengths. Such materials include glass, organic polymers, thermophotovoltaic devices, among many possibilities known to those skilled in the art.
vii. Rather than surrounding the entire apparatus, the absorbing material may be placed in the apparatus, for example in the polymer film through which the gas flows. Such placement can allow the absorber to reside within roughly an emission wavelength of the gas that is releasing the energy. Modulating Casimir Cavity Wall Spacing
Rather than moving the working gas by flowing it (FIGS. 4A-4D), vibrating it into and out of a Casimir cavity (FIGS. 5A-5C), or switching the characteristics of walls of the cavity to change the passbands (FIGS. 6A and 6B), the spacing between the cavity walls can be modulated. This produces the same result of tapping zero point energy that the flowing gas device of the previous embodiments produce. One way to accomplish this is to put the working gas into gaps formed in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).
MEMS technology makes use of semiconductor lithography techniques to build miniature mechanical devices. The Casimir effect has already been found to be in evidence in MEMS devices. In 2001, Chan and co-workers at Bell Labs Lucent Technologies first demonstrated the effect of the Casimir force in a MEMS device. A gold coated sphere was brought close to a MEMS seesaw paddle, consisting of a polysilicon plate suspended above a substrate on thin torsion rods. The Bell Labs researchers demonstrated the effect of the Casimir force in rocking the plate.
In the current invention we make use of MEMS technology to modulate the spacing between Casimir cavity walls. (Note that we are not making use of the Casimir force to change this spacing, as was done in the Bell Labs demonstration.) The basic MEMS device used to accomplish this is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. A side view is shown in FIG. 7A. Two conducting electrodes 76 are shown on the substrate. A pivoting polysilicon plate 74 is shown suspended above the substrate 72. A conducting layer 77 is formed on the underside of this plate. A top view is shown in FIG. 7B. The pivoting plate 74 forms the central rectangular region, which is surrounded by a gap 73. The pivoting arm 75 connects this plate to the surrounding region at the top and bottom of the rectangle. As in the earlier embodiments, the apparatus is surrounded by a means 24 for absorbing the released energy, such as a water bath
The device functions as follows. The working gas fills the region between the pivoting plate 74 and the substrate 72. A voltage is applied first between the pivoting plate and the left-hand electrode. This causes the distance between the left side of the plate and the substrate to diminish, thereby changing the dimensions of the Casimir cavity formed by these two surfaces. Then the voltage is instead applied between the pivoting plate and the right-hand electrode. This causes the plate to pivot, such that the distance between the right side of the plate and the substrate diminishes, thereby changing the dimensions of the Casimir cavity formed by these two surfaces. The voltage is switched alternately between these two electrodes, causing the plate to oscillate back and forth. The oscillating action is greatly enhanced by the torsion of the pivots, so that very little energy is required to maintain the oscillation.
The techniques to fabricate such a MEMS device is well known to those skilled in the art.
It is to be understood that the shape, dimensions, modulation techniques and materials can be varied greatly and still be part of this invention. The following is a list of some such variations, but it is far from exhaustive:
i. Instead of using a MEMS device, the Casimir cavity can be formed between a substrate and a suspended conducting sheet. A similar technology has been used to form electrostatic acoustic speakers, albeit with larger spacings.
ii. Gaps can be formed in a polymer, with both sides of the gap coated with a conductor and the gap filled with a working gas. The polymer can then be stretched, as in the embodiment of FIGS. 6A and 6B, such that the spacing of the Casimir cavity formed by the two conductors is modulated. A figure of this would appear much like that depicted in FIG. 6B
viii. Instead of stretching the polymer, it can be modulated with an acoustic signal through the air, or through a liquid that surrounds it.
ix. Instead of stretching the polymer, it can be modulated with an ambient thermal vibrations. As the working gas and the structure heat up, the vibrations will increase.
x. The polymer coated on its interior surface with a conductor may be formed into small spheres that are filled with the working gas. These spheres can fill a volume in which the pressure is modulated, either by enclosing the volume and modulating the pressure in the entire volume, by passing an acoustic signal through the volume, or by thermal vibrations. This modulation causes the spacing of the Casimir cavity in which the working gas is contained to vary. Although the shape of the device is substantially different from that of FIGS. 7A and 7B, the function is the same.
xi. The working fluid may be a wide variety of gases, in addition to the noble gases described earlier, so that all mentions of gas atoms may be extended to molecules of various types.
xii. The working fluid may be a liquid, so that all mentions of gases and gas atoms may be extended to liquids of various types. For operation of up to approximately 100° C., one possible liquid is ethylene glycol. For high temperature operation, the liquid can be sodium.
xiii. The water bath may be replaced with any other material or device that absorbs substantially the released energy wavelengths. Such materials include glass, organic polymers, thermophotovoltaic devices, among many possibilities known to those skilled in the art.
xiv. Rather than surrounding the entire apparatus, the absorbing material may be placed in the apparatus, for example coating the substrate and cap of the region containing the gas. Such placement can allow the absorber to reside within roughly an emission wavelength of the gas that is releasing the energy.
We note that the MEMS device of FIGS. 7A and 7B can also be used to move the working gas back and forth between the left-hand and right-hand regions. This function is consistent with the embodiment of FIGS. 5A-5C, in which the working gas is vibrated into and out of a Casimir cavity. Assymetric Casimir Cavity Entry and Exits Including Absorbing Means
As a prelude to this embodiment, we review the processes involved in the present invention. A general concept of this entire invention is that a gas that is in equilibrium with the ambient electromagnetic modes, which include the vacuum field (also known as the zero point field), is caused to enter a Casimir cavity. For the purposes of this entire invention a Casimir cavity is defined as any region in which the electromagnetic modes are restricted. Upon approaching this region, the electromagnetic modes that the space supports are restricted and the energy of the electron orbitals of the gas atoms is reduced. As a consequence of this reduction the excess energy is emitted and absorbed by the apparatus, providing heat energy. By the time the atoms are in the Casimir cavity, nearly all the excess energy has been radiated (unless the gas flow is extremely fast). The gas atoms pass through the Casimir cavity, and upon emerging from this region to a region that supports a broader range of electromagnetic modes, the energy of the electron orbitals of the gas atoms is again allowed to rise to its previous value. The compensation for the energy deficit is provided from the ambient electromagnetic modes.
One of the tenets of the current invention is that excess energy released when the gas approaches the Casimir cavity is delivered locally and that the energy deficit that must be compensated for when it emerges from the cavity is supplied from global sources. In this way the ambient electromagnetic field is tapped to provide usable energy. There may be conditions in which it is possible that the excess energy release and the deficit energy supply are both local, in which case no net energy is provided. Similarly, there may be conditions in which it is possible that the excess energy release and the deficit energy supply are both global, in which case again no net energy is provided. To avoid these possibilities, we provide an asymmetry in the apparatus to ensure that the excess energy is released locally and that the energy deficit is supplied globally.
The concept of embodiment is shown in FIG. 8. This figure depicts a channel 88, similar to that shown in some of the earlier embodiments. Gas is constricted between two substrates 82 and 83 and flows through the channel in the direction of the arrows. As in the previous cases, gas flows from a region in which the substrate is not coated 87 with a conducting layer to a region in which it is 86. The difference here is that an intermediate region 84 is provided in which the substrates are coated with an absorbing layer. This absorbing region absorbs the excess energy that is radiated from the atoms as they approach the Casimir cavity (conducting) region. The absorbing region is not substantially conducting, and therefore does not substantially restrict the electromagnetic modes that are supported in the region. Upon exiting the Casimir cavity (conducting) region, the atoms pass immediately into another region with no absorbing region 87. Thus upon approaching the Casimir cavity the atoms are forced to deliver their excess energy locally because it is absorbed by the absorbing region 87. Upon emerging from the Casimir cavity the gas atoms are forced to supply their energy deficit non-locally, i.e., globally, because there is no local source for this energy.
As an option, a further aspect of this invention is to situate the absorbing region within roughly one emission wavelength of the gas atoms at the time that they are emitting. No such layer is provided within such a distance when the gas atoms emerge from the Casmir cavity and are supplied with energy. The substrate is chosen such that it does not absorb the emission wavelengths.
The absorbing layers may comprise glass (amorphous silicon dioxide, usually with impurities), and the substrate may comprise sapphire. The glass has a much broader absorption band in the far infrared than does the sapphire. A wide range of other materials may be provided to form the absorbing layers and non-absorbing or less absorbing substrate. Such materials are known to those skilled in the art, and are available in tables and handbooks.
The sequence of regions depicted in FIG. 8 may be repeated to form the sort of multiply striped structure described in the embodiment of FIGS. 4A-4D.
The dimensions of the channel and the apparatus are approximately the same as those of embodiment of FIGS. 4A-4D. Similarly the attachments to provide for gas flow, the spacers, and other aspects of the apparatus are similar to those described in embodiment of FIGS. 4A-4D. The conducting layer length is chosen so that the emerging atoms do not have substantial access to radiation emitted from the absorbing regions. Note that, unlike embodiment of FIG. 2, it is not necessary to surround the apparatus with a means for absorbing the released energy 24, such as a water bath.
The device fabrication is not described explicitly as it is well known to those skilled in the art.
It is to be understood that the dimensions and materials can be varied greatly and still be part of this invention. The following is a list of some such variations, but it is far from exhaustive:
i. The substrates may be other insulating or partially conducting materials, such as silicon, glass, ceramic, plastic, etc.
ii. The conducting stripes can be formed of other conductors, such as copper, aluminum, gold, sliver, silicides, transparent conductors such as indium tin oxide, etc.
iii. The stripes may be recessed in the substrate or they protrude from the surface.
iv. The individual devices may be sandwiched together to form thick structures. For example, in place of the 250 micron thick substrates, micro-sheet having a thickness of 50 microns or far less may be used so that dense structures are formed.
v. The working fluid may be a wide variety of gases, in addition to the noble gases described earlier, so that all mentions of gas atoms may be extended to molecules of various types.
vi. The working fluid may be a liquid, so that all mentions of gases and gas atoms may be extended to liquids of various types. For operation within approximately of 100° C., one possible liquid is ethylene glycol. For high temperature operation, the liquid can be sodium.
vii. Micro-motors formed using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology can be used to pump the gas through the channels.
viii. The Casimir cavities may be composed of carbon nanotubes.
ix. The pattern may be formed using self-assembled layers.
The device may incorporate a naturally formed structure. For example, diatom shells consisting of silicon dioxide patterned with features, including holes, that are tens of nanometers in size. To the extent necessary, these can be coated as needed with conductors to form Casimir cavities.
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